A ticking clock, heavy breathing, the squeak of sneakers on the dance floor, and the voices of runners who came to the sport from unconventional backgrounds.
These are the sounds that score choreographer Alyssa Mitchel’s cast of dancers as they reinterpret what it means to push your body to its limits in Mitchel’s new multimedia dance production, “Endure,” at Dance Mission Theater, which has its first performance on Oct. 3.
“Endure” has its origins in the pandemic. Cut off from the collaborative physicality of dance, Mitchel began running. What she thought would be a solo sport instead became a community that carried her through the isolation that she, like many others, faced during the pandemic.
That experience, and six marathoners that Mitchel interviewed along the way, inspired “Endure.”
Through the Anti-Racist Run Club, Mitchel met Justin Williams, who also founded the Unseen Run Club. Through Unseen, Mitchel met neurodivergent marathoner Tommy Zhonghuang, and Melisa Camano.
At a 5K in Golden Gate Park, Mitchel met Markelle Taylor, the main subject of Christine Yoo’s documentary, “26.2 to Life,” a film about a marathon in San Quentin prison.
A fellow choreographer introduced her to ultramarathoner Victor Ballesteros. The sixth runner, Sydney Levenfeld, a young marathoner managing epilepsy, needed no introduction; she happens to be Mitchel’s cousin.
Mitchel interviewed each runner, and cut the hour-long conversations into narratives that vary between three to six minutes. Each of the production’s six dancers has a solo that is set to the audio of one of the marathoners.
In the audio, the six marathoners reflect on their personal journeys and their relationship to running.
Victor Ballesteros talks about the role the ultra-marathon community has played in helping him work through his depression. “I run because I want to breathe, I want to know myself,” he tells Mitchel.
Levenfeld recalls the day of her first seizure, and how running has been a place she can let go of the fear her seizures inspire.
Taylor recounts his decision to start the 1000 Mile Club, the running club at San Quentin, after a friend and fellow inmate died by suicide, and how running helped Taylor work through the overwhelming darkness of the incarceration system.
In translating the audio to movement, Mitchel encouraged the dancers to focus on how their assigned runner spoke.
“The movement, rhythm and syncopation throughout each part of the solo is inspired by how these runners express themselves with their voices,” said Mitchel.
The choreographer said the dancers also used their own lived experiences to relate to the runner they were paired with. Dancer Jessica DeFranco, for example, was matched with Melisa Camano, and could relate to the runner because they both played soccer growing up and had sprained an ankle while playing.
“Endure” developed gradually. As an artist in residence at Mannakin Theater & Dance for its inaugural iMPACt Genesis Residency in the summer of 2024, Mitchel developed a running-related section titled “Track Tuesday,” which is now the first section of “Endure.”
Later, as an artist in residence at Zaccho Dance Theatre, Mitchel expanded the production into 17 sections that follow traditional aspects of the marathon, including training for the race, run clubs, injuries, tapering, hitting the wall and reaching the finish line.
The visual artist Zach Litoff, who Mitchel met on her first run with Unseen Run Club in May 2023, designed projections for the production, using animations and still images. The solo sections feature an animation created by images pulled from a photoshoot with the runners organized by Litoff and Mitchel.
Mitchel has only seen a few works-in-progress from Litoff; she won’t see everything until the week of the show, when the production goes into the theater. “I fully trust Zach to work his magic,” she said.
In reflecting on what she hopes audience members feel after seeing “Endure,” Mitchel recalled something Taylor shared: “The dedication and putting in the work to run a marathon is just like the dedication and putting in the work for the many other challenges you have in life.”
We all face difficulty at some point that feels insurmountable, Mitchel said, “My hope is that audience members will come away from the show feeling confident that they can handle whatever challenge comes next.”
“Endure” will be performed on Friday, Oct. 3 ,and Saturday, Oct. 4, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 5, at 6 p.m. at Dance Mission Theater. You can purchase tickets here.
Modern dance is too popular. We need to cut it with something extremely boring that people insist on talking about unprompted. But what…? Wait, I know!
But sincerely, I wish them luck finding what audience exists for such a thing. Takes all kinds, right?